Why didn't slaves just leave?

Upvote:5

Because a free citizen would not show up in a new city with no contacts, nobody to vouch for him. A respectable citizen would not contemplate to move very far unless he knew what to expect, and unless he was known at least by name to merchants and magistrates in the new hometown.

Upvote:7

Very few slaves were able to successfully escape

Imagine you are a slave in Rome wanting to escape. What requirements would you have to fulfill ?

  • If you happen to be a woman, simply forget about it. Traveling alone on foot was uncommon for females, and lonely traveling women appearing suddenly in some town or village was bound to raise suspicions of local slave catchers and other riffraff that may claim bounty for fugitive slave.

  • If you are physically weak (too old for example), also forget about it. Chances are you won't be able to walk hundreds of miles, both on and off road.

  • You better be either proficient with weapons&traps, or steal lot of money from your master. Ex-soldiers or hunters could probably support themselves in the wild by stealing, robbing, or hunting(trapping). But all others would probably need to buy food and other supplies.

  • Mediterranean look would also help. In ancient Rome most of slaves were White, but this still does not mean they looked like Romans. By all accounts Romans were mostly of Mediterranean type, therefore some Nordic or Baltic type slave would stand out in the crowd.

  • Knowing local language, dialect and customs would also help. Recently captured slaves would probably not know enough Latin to pass as free Romans. Slaves born in Rome on the other hand probably won't have aforementioned military or hunting skills.

As you can see, very few slaves actually had a chance for successful escape. One example of successful escape would be Cicero's slave Dionysius. According to Cicero, this slave was well-educated, he even supervised Cicero's personal library. We could assume that Dionysius knew fluent Latin and could impersonate free educated Roman, or otherwise bluff people he came in contact with. He probably had access to some money, because he paid for his transport across Adriatic. But slaves like Dionysius were small minority, most of other slaves were just uneducated workforce that would end up flogged or worse crucified when captured, to scare other slaves.

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